The 25 October was the final day of business of the first tranche of DVLA local offices to close. Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Brighton, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Edinburgh, Ipswich, Lincoln, Norwich, Oxford, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, Stockton and Swansea offices will no longer be open to the public or Motor Trade.

Vehicle inspections

Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) commenced performing vehicle inspections on behalf of DVLA on 1 October on an interim basis. DVLA has commenced the process of seeking a permanent supplier after holding a supplier day on 4 October.

Processing Personalised Registrations (PR)

Over the past few months, DVLA has been issuing us with regular updates on the change-over dealing with applications centrally.

Processing of PR applications is now down to 7 days at the DVLA Swansea office but allowances need to be made for postage time, hence Vehicle Registration documents (V5C) are being issued by first class post for transactions associated with First Registration and Personal Registrations. First class mail is now also being used to dispatch the tax discs.

Post Office® additional enhancements

Following consultation with the industry around enhanced licensing services at the Post Office®, the DVLA are introducing two new services for registered fleet companies to help them transact with the Post Office®. One is an email scheme for bulk licensing applications; the other is the provision of prefunded accounts as payment. These new services are scheduled to be rolled out via the Post Office® in November and anyone interested in taking advantage of this scheme should email stewart.john@dvla.gsi.gov.uk for information.